Cookbooks Are the Next Frontier for Narrative Writing

America’s first all-you-can-eat buffet was never intended to sate appetites, but to reignite waning ones. Around the middle of the 20th century, a canny casino owner noticed that hunger was driving his gamblers out the door, towards diners bathed in dawn light. His $1 buffet—offering cold cuts and snacks instead of a full meal—kept gamblers just nourished enough to remain on the betting floor. This is merely one of the remarkable historical alleys Ella Quittner puckishly guides us down in Obsessed With the Best, her cookbook in cultural-historical essays.